Lord Shiva continued, “O Lord, as we have not conquered the force called anger our mind undergoes modifications/ agitations. However Srihari does not experience any agitations. Existing as the Self He is the eternal witness who observes everything. The illusory power composed of the trigunas cannot even touch or influence Him in any way. It cannot cause mental modifications in Him. Any person who seeks to control and obtain victory over these senses and mind must necessarily serve this Lord.

Completely covered by the veil of illusion the wicked perceive You as one who possesses reddish eyes due to intoxication caused by drinking wine and liquor. Due to your illusion Nāga-kanyas who touched Your holy feet got bewildered with sensory desires and their minds became agitated. Due to shyness, they lost the capacity to worship You.

Both Aditi, the mother of the Devatas, and Supreme Maharishis declare that the infinite Lord is responsible for the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the Universe. They also state that He is over and beyond the three attributes of Nature (trigunas). This Lord holds innumerable universes on his 1000 hoods. To Him each universe is as tiny as a mustard seed.

O Lord, Your illusionary power is composed of the traits of goodness, action and ignorance (sattva, rajas and tamas. From this illusory power firstly Mahat tattva (cosmic intelligence) emerges. Lord Brahma retains this illumination as his carrier. He is the sole refuge for vijnana shakti. I am born from such Lord Brahma. The egoism born out of goodness, passion and ignorance (satvik, rajasic and tamasic ahamkara) is itself my energy.

Using this energy I create Devatas, who are predominantly filled with traits of goodness (sattva guna), senses which are predominantly composed of passion/ action (rajo guna) and the five gross elements which are composed of the traits of ignorance and inertia (tamo guna).

Lord Brahma, Mahat tattva, myself, the Devatas, senses and the gross elements are through our collective actions tied to You just as birds are tied to a rope. Only due to Your blessings we are able to create this world.

Spiritual ignorance is Your creation. It creates knots called actions and thus binds human beings. **Obsessed with the satvik, rajasic and tamasic actions the individual assumes oneness with them. Hence he is unable to understand about illusion and ways to escape from it. **This world emerges from You and merges back into You. To You, O Supreme Lord, I offer obeisance”.

With this the seventeenth chapter of the fifth canto comes to an end.

Swamiji says: To understand the meaning of this prayer it has to be heard repeatedly. Until then it cannot be grasped.

Fifth Canto Chapter Eighteen

In this chapter the various zones of Jambu-dvīpa, the incarnations taken by the Lord in each of them and the worship performed therein are detailed.

Maharishi Śuka continued, “Parikshit, in this way Shiva worshipped Lord Sankarśana. Likewise Bhadraśrava, the son of Dharma, rules the land known as Bhadrāśva varṣa. His elders as well as his attendants worship Hayagriva, an incarnation of Lord Srihari. Hayagriva is very dear to the Lord.

With intense concentration Bhadraśrava and his associates consecrate the form of this Lord in their mind. They then offer reverential obeisance to the Lord and pray to Him who purifies the mind through knowledge and who is an embodiment of righteousness. They pray,

“Aha! Wonderous are the plays of the Supreme! Even though foolish human routinely sees death, which is also another form of the Supreme, he behaves as if death does not exist! For enjoying material pleasures in this illusory world he continues to entertain sinful desires. Even though he sends his father or children to the crematorium, he still desires to live and enjoy. He lives in the illusion that he will live forever.

O birthless Lord! Mahatmas who possess discriminatory knowledge of Self and non-Self objects realize Iśwara as the Self and this world as non-Self, unreal and impermanent. Such Mahatmas eternally impart this knowledge to others. Even then, ignorant humans choose to live under the veil of illusion.

Even after hearing these messages innumerable times; even after witnessing people die every day, the human being continues to live under illusion. He does not seek to understand about the Lord and His illusion. He seems to take delight in repeated re-births. Even when Mahatmas repeatedly explain this subject, he chooses to ignore it. Isn’t your illusion wonderous? O birthless Lord! We offer obeisance to You.

Viśvodbhava-sthāna-nirodha-karma te hy akartur aṅgīkṛtam apy apāvṛtaḥ Yuktaṁ na citraṁ tvayi kārya-kāraṇe sarvātmani vyatirikte ca vastutaḥ

O Lord, as the veil of ignorance cannot touch You, You do not have feelings of oneness with action performed. Vedas declare that You perform the tasks of creation, sustenance and destruction of the universe although You are detached from them. There is nothing astonishing in this accepted truth. You are the cause; You are the action; You exist as the varied different forms. Yet, everything in this creation illumines within Your original Self alone, which is distinctly separate from all these objects.

The truth however, O Lord, is that this visible world does not have any real existence. At times of annihilation demons who were filled with traits of ignorance (tamas) stole the Vedas and hid them in hell. Hearing Brahma’s prayers You took on a human form with horse head to restore the Vedas to Him. O Lord, Your intentions always materialize and never fail. We offer obeisance to You”.

Om Nārasimhāya namah